Hal Austin
Introduction:
There is an SOS flag flying over Barbados, people are struggling to survive in rough seas and the rescue boat, in the form of the government, has lost its direction and cannot locate the helpless victims. We have witnessed a fog of macro-economic lying and deceit by technocrats and politicians using the national loyalty of Barbadians to deceptively feed them bogus economic policies as palliatives for curing the nation’s economic ills.
Despite this, there has not been as much as a whisper from our leading public intellectuals, academics or opposition politicians. The better informed know that what passes as official policy will never rescue the economy in a month of Sundays; they know that minister Sinckler is out of his depth as a manager of the national economy; they know that either the governor of the central bank is being ignored, or that he is putting politics before sound financial economics, yet they remain silent. The crisis has also exposed the lack of ideological and philosophical differences between the two main parties, thus their emphasis on personalities. Not only is this sameness reinforced by the almost total silence of the official Opposition – over and above the occasional call for government action, while at the same time remaining silent about its own alternative policies – it now runs deeper in society. The lack of ideological differences is also demonstrated by the ease with which individuals can cross the floor of parliament from party to party and, sometimes, back again.
Many people are hypnotised by the bogus claim to undying party loyalty, ignoring the wider principles that bring (or should have brought) people in to politics. A good example of this is the total silence from individual members of parliament over the need to protect those left behind as the dark economic clouds blanket the country. Who is going to speak up for the elderly living in abject poverty, the army of jobless young men and women, the ill who cannot get proper medical attention at our only hospital? Who is going to speak out against a bandit government that is willing to sell citizenship to the highest bidder, lease our hospital buildings to wealthy private medical firms, allow Barbados to be used as a flag of convenience for unseaworthy ships? Public sector redundancies are but a single symptom of the failure of government and the institutionalisation of lies by politicians and policymakers. When a simple-minded party loyalist could put party before country then we know that the rot has gone right through the society.
What kind of society will allow a 16 year old girl and her 18 yr old brother to care for their six, eight and 11 yr old siblings, without any aid from social services, the church, or well-intentioned people for well near four years, after their father, the only breadwinner, was shot dead? This level of barbarism in a society that claims for itself to be ‘developed’, ‘civilised’ and ‘educated’, beggars belief.
A society that is willing to sell its birthright for thirty pieces of silver to gangsters, money launderers, spiv Irish property developers, former owners of gypsy encampment sites, and other dubious characters in search of Barbadian citizenship and most probably on the run from the tax authorities or the police in their native countries. This suffering by these young people can be multiplied by tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands fold. It is the manifestation of a society that has lost its soul, of a people living in a fairyland, a people who have decided that reality is too tough to face so they live a pretend life.
Recently I offered a plane ticket to a cousin of mine, a fourth generation American of Barbadian descent, to visit the island and she refused. “Food is too expensive,” she said. Asking 20 members of parliament, no matter which party they belong to, to vote on their conscience for a ten per cent reduction in their salaries – especially given that most of them have alternative sources of income – is not a threat to our democracy. Rather, it is a testament of our civilisation, of the nature of our public ethics. But then again some people think ‘ethics’ is the name of a new soft drink. The only way out for us as a nation is to put country before party.
Policies:
In the absence of any serious national debate, either on platforms, debating chambers, in parliament or in the media, Barbadians have very few sources of objective economic policy analysis. In light of this information vacuum, like a flowing tide of water, they opt for the source of least resistance, supporting the ideas of people they know and are comfortable with rather than those they do not. The trouble with this show of local loyalty, is that the talent pool is small, the circulation of ideas is narrow and the origins of those ideas have a similarity – from primary school, to secondary school, to university, to professional practice. These narrow intellectual horizon eventually feeds through in to the way we are governed and, subsequently, in policymaking and collective social values.
So, in policymaking terms, we get a government under pressure deciding to introduce an element of quantitative easing (good), but spending over Bds$200m on road repairs and building (bad), not only is this is a waste of taxpayers’ money, but it now seems preordained as if the same contractors are engaged for all big public sector projects. Then there is the further waste of taxpayers’ money on Four Seasons, to be repeated on Almond Resorts, to be repeated by setting up a special fund to finance badly managed privately owned small hotels – underwritten by national insurance.
All these obvious public policy failures are based on a culture of inward-looking policymaking, a desire to grab the headlights rather than to do what is needed in the long-term interest of the nation. It is also a failure of the few public intellectuals, in particular the press, to raise and debate pressing public policy issues, either for fear of personal abuse or being made to look ill-informed. But the policy-making deficit is huge, even though for obvious reasons we tend to concentrate at present on the economy.
As has been pointed out on a number of occasions, from the criminal justice system (the logjam of cases going back decades, the civil war within the police, the territorial battle between police and customs, etc), education (the annual failure of our the vast majority of school leavers to get good results, the battle for control between the teachers’ unions and heads, a weak minister, etc), the civil service (poor drafting of legislation, poor cost/benefit analyses, top-heavy management, too many on the public payroll, etc).
Then there is the rhetoric about restructuring, but the failure to act: privatising the Transport Board, the Water Authority, the government printery, the portfolio of hotels, the equity share in LIAT, etc) in a climate that suggests that to return ownership of public assets to the people is a form of robbery. It is as if other forms of ownership are not part of the wider discussion or maybe a deep desire by politicians to interfere with functioning and management of statutory bodies, such as CBC.
What are the other domestic, regional and international issues? What about the moribund Caricom? How much does it cost taxpayers to keep this corpse on a lifesaving machine? Then again, this raises the issue of a social dimension to our post-independence democracy, another colossal failure. In a winner/loser unforgiving culture, those who succeed move from their traditional communities to the Heights and Terraces, leaving those who are left trapped in these towns and communities to suffer the humiliation of their so-called failure. This is reinforced by the bogus arguments around the elevated importance of monetary and fiscal policy, while leaving the wider social dimension out of the question. Sometimes our politicians do not raise these issues, not even the ones who claim to be radicals, because they do not fully understand the central importance of the social policy issues. Just look at the lack of any discussion, by the DLP government, BLP Opposition, or the other groupings that pretend to the political throne, about youth unemployment; not a single one wants to discuss the training, education and job opportunities for young people, the future of our nation, unless, of course, we are talking crime. This is a silent savagery, a Holocaust perpetuated on poor young men and women (these are who they are) by the so-called middle class professionals.
It is social cleansing of the most evil kind: build more prisons to warehouse these social vagrants and wasters, this ruling elite most probably say when drinking their expensive whisky and Champagne. Is this not a good time to raise the question of income inequality? What about a national land use policy? How about writing the issue of public access in to clearly understood law? We are now in such a state that what passes for a national debate quickly moves from substance to motives: which party do you support? What qualifies you to have these views? In fact, who are you?
Intellectual Failure:
By far the elephant in the room of the basic and diversionary debate about university tuition fees and the notion of ‘free’ education, is that those generations that have benefited from ‘free’ education have not come to the plate and paid back any of their dues by participating in the national discussion. It is this intellectual failure, along with allowing political gimmickry about free education to become serious policy, and in particular from full-time professional academics, that exposes the weakness in our national conversation. Instead they have left a small minority of semi-educated political proselytisers to shout in the dark, including those advocates of the destruction of corporate capitalism, like a drunken man urinating up against a wall. Typically, they have not suggested any alternative business models to hedge the nation against any future financial collapse, or withdrawal of funding to small businesses and households by foreign-owned banks, or any new models of business organisation. Nothing about the expansion of mutuality, cooperatives, of common ownership structures, of reforms of company legislation, of worker representatives on firm boards – nothing, zilch.
Analysis and Conclusion:
Despite patting themselves on the back about the quality of our public education, when the chips are down we have been found wanting. We are being eclipsed by St Lucia, in terms of the creation of human capital and of policymaking; we have been outshone by Trinidad in terms of financial engineering and corporate expansion (a Trinidad-domiciled firm now operates in Scotland in whisky-making) and, most of all, in the quality of our public sector bureaucracy. We have a political and business elite that is happy looking for solutions from the top down in the vain belief that ideas can only flow downwards.
No publicly known individual, no organisation, no trade union, has been out in the streets putting the case for bottom up reforms; after all, ideas coming from ordinary people can not be any more useless than those coming out of parliament, the senior ranks of the civil service, and from our insular, closeted business class. But there is a fear of contagion. What is wrong with common ownership? Why should the commercial prospects of a mutual, or a cooperative or a collective ownership of some kind be any worse than a private equity one? Maybe one reason is that the understated message from the ruling elite is that ordinary people cannot be business successes, that they lack the acumen, they do not have MBAs from the top business schools. Or it is just that Barbadians have lost confidence in themselves, are happy taking a public sector monthly salary, arrive at work when they like, do as much or as little as they like, and leave early to collect the kids from school. May be that lack of self-discipline is contagious, passing from generation to generation until it has become part of our occupational DNA.
For nearly six years we have sat back and watched as our leaders sadly failed to even understand what is going on in the global world. Just listen to the outright mis-information given by minister Sinckler in his Budget Speech and, occasionally by prime minister Stuart about the state of the global economy. Either they are victims of their researchers bad work or are deliberately economical with the truth or, as I see it, they just ignore corrections coming from responsible public servants and academics, including the central bank. The implication of this for government is that if you cannot get the basic ingredients right then the final pudding will be inedible. Part of the restructuring of our society is to confront the inflexibility of our labour market and the cartel operated by some trade union Godfathers. This is one reason why young people cannot get jobs and sets them against their parents’ and grand parents’ generations in the battle for jobs. At least we should talk about these creeping social problems, rather than allow the nonsense of aw Social Partnership to cloud our thinking. Governments are elected to govern, not to share office to big business and a business elite. Where is our political and civic Moses, to lead us out of this economic wilderness? Who is going to step up to the plate and offer the nation guidance?
David
So the COP has formally turned over reins of power to Tyrone and intends to withdraw his injunctive application to the High Court. But I have a question based on the Barbados Today story:
Who would want to wire tap the phones of the Police Attaché to former PM Owen Arthur and Police Attaché to current PM Freundel Stuart?
Hmmmmnnnnn……………….let me think, who would benefit?
Former PM has always maintained that some of the persons seeking to be PM are not suitable, morally and otherwise.
@ Hal Austin:”For nearly six years we have sat back and watched as our leaders sadly failed to even understand what is going on in the global world….”
That should read for nearly Forty (40)years.
Oh dear, I weep for my country under this inept government.
Read Page # 3 of Barbados Today http://epaper.barbadostoday.bb/ and then lets have a chat about why Mottley felt it necessary to Wire Tap even Arthur, we know she is a Sick Perverted Beast but we never knew she was such a low life to listen to people on their private call, or what they would have expected to be private calls, another Sin of CWC 2007 made worse with a power hungry beast like Mottley as AG
Regarding the wiretapping there is a crisis in confidence in our key institutions of governance, and justifiably so. These are the very institutions which separated Barbados from the rest.
David
Totally agree with you. This does not look good for who ever was the master mind behind this dirty and nasty deed. It would appear from the content of the article that PSC have quite a lot of evidence about this and those behind it, if true and IF Mottley is connected, then clearly she old bench warming the chair of Leader of the Opposition.
Oh what a tangled web we weave
When we first practice to deceive
Hal
You are quiet dramatic this morning!!!!
by Wade Gibbons
“Darwin Dottin has officially severed ties with the Royal Barbados Police Force.
Barbados TODAY investigations have revealed that on Tuesday the former Commissioner of Police, accompanied by a permanent secretary, presented himself at Police Headquarters where in keeping with established force protocols he officially handed over the reins of management of the force to new Commissioner of Police, Tyrone Griffith.
It marked the end of a nine-year reign as head of the organisation that culminated controversially in June when on the advice of the Police Service Commission he was sent on administrative leave by Governor General Sir Elliot Belgrave pending his recommended retirement from the public service.”
Serious political action has got to be taken against the DLP and the BLP in this country by the broad masses and middle classes of people of Barbados.
It has to be said by the PDC that the permanent removal of these two jack o lantern factions from the political governmental landscape of this country is what is absolutely totally required for this country to be of some assistance in the process of the much needed wholistic transformation of this country.
PDC
Mottley was indeed the person who provided the names and the numbers to Dottin to have those numbers,emails, text and voice listened to. Very sickly and reprehensible carried out by Mottley against Honest Barbadians
“Righteousness exalts a NATION, But SIN IS* a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34)
“UNLESS the LORD builds the house (Nation) they labour in VAIN who build it. UNLESS the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in VAIN.”
(Psa. 127:1) Emphasis added.
Barbados is IN* a ABYSS of SIN! Politically, socially, and otherwise!
The ONLY WAY out, is sincere Repentance to Almighty God, and FAITH in the Lordship of Jesus Christ!
Darwin Dottin has single handedly proven the weakness of Darwin’r theory of evolution. Darwin has taken the RBPF backwards.
The story about Mr. Dottin is 100% untrue. Wait for the retraction to be printed. Wade Gibbons should not let his personal agenda cause him to render his employer liable for defamation.
“the permanent removal of these two jack o lantern factions from the political governmental landscape of this country”
@PDC and replace them with who?
@ David (not BU) | September 6, 2013 at 3:49 PM |
“@PDC and replace them with who?”
With the PDC and Bushie’s BUP or PUP. LOL!!!
@ Zoe | September 6, 2013 at 9:53 AM |
What silliness are you preaching here, Zoe?
Didn’t His Holy Highness Rev. Bonke pray for and saved the nation last year around Independence? Barbados was delivered from the evil of the BLP as arranged by Rev. David Durant. What more are you asking for?
Didn’t your god entertain the national prayers that went up and continue to go up every day especially on Sundays?
Has his heart turned to stone against the people of Barbados?
Would you say Bonke and David D are frauds?
millertheanunnaki | September 6, 2013 at 4:33 PM |
@ Zoe | September 6, 2013 at 9:53 AM |
What silliness are you preaching here, Zoe?
ZOE IS TEACHING THE TRUTH
“Because judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Barbados is IN* a ABYSS of SIN! Politically, socially, and otherwise!
Barbados has always been in an abyss of –wateva –Barbados was settled and slavery became part of it from the beginning. Can you want something more cruel and sinful than slavery ? Come again Zoe !
If it is one thing that one can say about BLP members and supporters, it is that they don’t let the truth get in their way.
This article really makes me laugh.
The very first sentence is one of the biggest lies.
“There is an SOS flag flying over Barbados, people are struggling to survive in rough seas and the rescue boat, in the form of the government, has lost its direction and cannot locate the helpless victims.”
This government in spite of the difficult times is working hard to keep the ship of state afloat. All the Social services are still intact and working to provide the poor and the indigent with a measure of relief in these times we are living in. Every month the Welfare Dept. posts thousands of cheques to those in need without fail. The Welfare dept. continues to provide food grants for the needy. The Welfare Dept. continues to pay rent, water bills, electric bills for the aged and the infirm. Children are returning to school next week and the Welfare Dept. has provided to poor families, books, shoes, school uniforms so that the little ones should not miss a day of school. The national Disability Unit is still providing assistance to the disabled community. Scores of Home helpers descend on districts across this county to do their duty for the old, the shutins and those in needy circumstances come hell or high water.
Yet we have a man who lives a million miles away from here depending on Barbados Underground for his news and then writing a lot of foolishness.
@ Carson C. Cadogan | September 6, 2013 at 5:24 PM |
Son Son, you forgot to mention another organ of DLP administration that is paying an extremely vital role in the day-to-day survival of these poor communities. Your well oiled and managed Constituency Councils.
How about that Carson my boy do we get a big “thank you”?
I think that dottin either smelled a rat or someone whispered into his ear, ” man done wid dis foolishness, a lot of people cud get hurt in dis ting”.
David Thompson constantly complained that his phones were tapped but nothing was ever done about it.
Hope you all saw the front page of today’s Nation. Mr. Gibbons erroneous reporting will cost Barbados Today more than credibility.
The script continues to unravel which shows that jurisdictions like Barbados which have depended on offshore business will continue to feel the squeeze as cash starved G20 countries slam the door on multinationals.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/099eb084-1704-11e3-9ec2-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fglobal-economy%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct
Carson, man i thought you were plugged into everything on the island, i am not even there but know that Dottin is suing Barbadostoday for the false story that he is giving up his joyb without a fight, looks like you are losing your position as numero uno, better be careful they don’t replace you for not being up to date with your scoops.
Exactly what is wrong with best friends tapping each other, Carson, i dare you to tell me that Mia and David Thompson were not best friends, let me see how much balls you have, i bet you mine are bigger than yours.
Code Name Octopussy | September 6, 2013 at 4:58 PM |
“Barbados is IN* a ABYSS of SIN! Politically, socially, and otherwise!
Barbados has always been in an abyss of –wateva –Barbados was settled and slavery became part of it from the beginning. Can you want something more cruel and sinful than slavery ? Come again Zoe !”
‘For ALL (EVERY HUMAN BEING) have SINNED and fall sort of the glory of God.” ( Rom. 3:23)
Out side of a redeemed personal relationship with JESUS CHRIST, the ENTIRE human race, BAR NONE, Black, White, Brown, Yellow et al, are in terrible bondage, and SLAVERY to SIN, it ain’t got NO COLOUR!
“For the WAGES of SIN (eternal consequences in Hell) is* DEATH, but the GIFT of God IS* eternal life IN* Christ Jesus our Lord.” ( Rom. 6:23)
@ David | September 7, 2013 at 10:43 AM |
“The script continues to unravel which shows that jurisdictions like Barbados which have depended on offshore business will continue to feel the squeeze as cash starved G20 countries slam the door on multinationals.”
This is a major move which Barbados needs to watch rather seriously.
I suspect the intention here is to eliminate some of the competition in the market place by branding some vulnerable jurisdictions as tax havens for “blacklisting” and subsequent shutdown.
There is much less money going around the “offshore” market and competition is fierce. To exacerbate matters, the local legal and judicial systems do not readily qualify as capable of engendering a reliably effective framework in which to conduct ‘aboveboard’ offshore business at levels acceptable to the “home” jurisdictions of the so-called G7.
There are too many “offshore” business centres in the Caribbean and some must go.
Barbados better have a contingency plan to replace this dwindling offshore sector which has become a major forex earner and source of important tax revenues.
Moneywise: A bolt from the bleu: France’s bewildering decision to put Bermuda on tax haven list
By Martha Harris Myron
Published Sep 7, 2013 at 8:00 am (Updated Sep 6, 2013 at 5:04 pm)
It was more than a little disconcerting to see the announcement that Bermuda was placed on France’s tax haven list. One would think that there had to be a substantive reason for this pre-emptive label-tarnishing directly before the G20 meeting that just took place in St Petersburg, September 05, and 06, 2013, but none seems to be forthcoming.
Intrigued and concerned, I undertook just a little research on the web regarding large OECD nations (including France) in transparency and financial compliance actions to curtail corruption that turned up a number of interesting facts — making the French statement about Bermuda even more opaque and confusing.
Transparency International (TI) is the non-profit organisational movement (and watchdog) that relentlessly stirs the world’s collective conscience by taking a stand against corruption and working with partners in government, business and civil society to put effective measures in place to stop corruption. At the onset of the G20 conference, TI called on the group to take Action on Corruption.
Each year, TI reviews research data on more than 100 countries and publishes the Global Corruption Index by country**. The research is focused on topical areas where corruption can be rampant: access to information, intergovernmental bodies, climate changes, health, poverty and development, politics and government, private sector, education, international conventions, whistle-blowing, and others. The data indexing score is such that the higher the score percentage on the scale to 100 your country receives, the higher the country compliance controls with resultant lower corruption reported.
Bermuda, discussed recently in this respect in the media and also in an article in Moneywise earlier this year, is at the upper end, earning an 88 percent score in the year 2012 TI report. Much more astonishing is that the transparency of our large immediate neighbours compared to Bermuda is separated by only one (one!) percentage point in grade between France (89 percent), the United Kingdom (90 percent) and the United States lagging with 86 percent. Yet, the Philippines, a country that scored only 22 percent, on August 31, 2013 was taken off the French government’s blacklist of non-co-operative countries with respect to tax evasion and money laundering, according to Michelle V Remo, the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
In detail, then TI also narrates the corruptions challenges that each country still needs to resolve. According to the TI website (quoted) by country, France’s list of challenges is as follows:
• Conflicts of interest between public office and the private sector are a serious concern. As of 2012, France has no law that obliges elected public officials to disclose potential conflicts of interest arising from business relationships or positions.
• Lobbying Rules. Established to regulate political lobbying and implement codes of ethics are unsatisfactory. No guidelines have been adopted to direct Members of Parliament’s (MPs) dealings with lobbyists. There is also a serious lack of transparency between the work of MPs and lobbyists.
• Judiciary. France’s judiciary lacks investigative authority, independence and resources. Judges face difficulties accessing classified documents to investigate cases. Judicial independence is also undermined by the executive’s political interference.
Space does not permit me to list the corruptions challenges of both the United States and the United Kingdom, both of whom have also launched their share of critical zingers at Bermuda.
France has had some further challenges in the last couple of years in the tax avoidance, tax evasion and fraud by politically exposed persons area as well. The individuals in question have generated plenty of salacious headlines already, so no need to provide great enumeration except to point out that several individuals were connected to the leaders of current French ruling party. With so much written in French and global media about cracking down on tax evasion and financial corruption, these sideshows were a bit of a distraction.
So yes, that statement shot across the global bow from our European neighbour — the place where thousands of Bermuda residents (over the years) have gone to vacation, buy property homes, rave about the food, and the French cities and countryside experience in places like Provence, was a bewildering turn of events. ……………..
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20130907/COLUMN07/130909821
Miller
Always remember that there is more in the mortar than the pestle.
Bermuda’s TI compliance is 88%
put on a French Black list
The Philippines TI compliance is 22%
removed from a French Black list
your words:- “To exacerbate matters, the local legal and judicial systems do not readily qualify as capable of engendering a reliably effective framework” (you are probably trying to damage Barbados as you usually try to do)
The reality is that the French Judiciary is worst than Barbados”(not that you will notice such things)
“Judiciary. France’s judiciary lacks investigative authority, independence and resources. Judges face difficulties accessing classified documents to investigate cases. Judicial independence is also undermined by the executive’s political interference.”
The fact that these evils are absent here in Barbados no doubt has escape your notice(purposely?).
MILLER
You ought to follow World events as they unfold.
A good starting point would be this website:-
http://www.icij.org/
@ Cocky Locky
You have finally confirmed that you cannot think up one original idea in that skull of yours.
Any article that you print that is more than two lines is actually a cut and paste from some other website.
You are indeed the veritable lackey of the DLP government, no more than a faithful mutt.
Incredible
@ The Anunnaki.
I had promised NOT to engage with that idiot cocky locky and i broke my promise.
I claim “the thistle” defense oh Sage.
As big as a man is you know that a small thistle lodged under the skin can irritate you to unbearable lengths and you have to find a pin an painstakingly take it out.
Cocky Locky is that “thistle”, one of them actually the other one is AC.
I am hopeful that someone will send them one of those virulent viruses which will cause their machine to do a count down like those devices that Mr Phelps used to get Mission Impossible messages on.
Wishful thinking but hope springs eternal
@ Carson C. Cadogan | September 8, 2013 at 6:52 AM |
I will descend to your level and ask you just these few questions:
Were the Barbados judiciary and other organs of public administration doing a ‘good’ job during 14 years of your hellfire under OSA and his BLP gang?
Or is this “washed-in-the-blood-of-the-lamb” judicial effectiveness and efficiency in the local legal system a recent phenomenon that started only in 2008?
Why, therefore, are there so many people on remand for so many years without a fair hearing?
Are you saying that all the criticisms made on the many threads on the same Judiciary and legal system a plot to make your DLP administration look bad?
Are you saying the bloggers like Amused” have it in” for his friend FS’s administration by pointing out that Barbados missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars of FDI primarily because of the piss poor local legal and judicial systems?
Are you calling your PM a liar for expressing grave concern about the local judiciary? Are things much better under Sir Marston?
You are missing the big picture, my friend. Jurisdictions like Bermuda and Cayman Islands have friends in high place who have clout and can tell the French authorities to “go (back) to France”. Barbados has none and must rely on its own reputation to survive.
Got that one, Cocky Locky?
Two bits of clarification required after reading Caswell and Colin Jordan in the SUN today.
Caswell doesn’t the FTC exclude the BWA from its oversight under the Act?
Colin Jordan based on his submission appear to have no confidence in the means testing proposed by government.
piece
there is no fool like an old fool!
Piece
Highlighting important articles form various websites is a problem unless it is being done by BLP minions.
Do I have it right, piece?
prodigal son
Have you been following political events in Australia recently?
I must say that in some respects they mirrored events here in Barbados. Recall how your boy SEETHRU stuck the knife in MIA’s back because he mistakenly thought that he was the better person to lead the BLP in elections. The electorate whipped him for a third time.
Kevin Rudd push Julia Gillard out of the way because he thought he was the best person to be at the helm of the ALP going into the elections. He got his backside whipped. The electorate had any ideas about him and his party.
Just like the Barbados Labour Party “The ALP even hired staffers from the Obama presidential campaign in their bid to beat the conservative coalition led by Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott.” To no avail!
A-La-Barbados Labour Party “Rudd was also savvy in his use of social media to target the youth vote, according to Politifact’s Fray.” I recall MIA saying that their FACEBOOK pages got more “likes” than the DLP thus showing that more people were on their side. “Part of the pitch Rudd was making was very much to the youth vote, talking to people through social media.”
“Rudd regularly tweeted about his pet cat and dog, and posted family photographs with his granddaughter. He was criticised for “over-sharing” when he posting a picture – of a bloody tissue on his face after he had cut himself shaving – to his 70,000 Instagram followers.”
If it is one thing you must do in politics is to read the tea leaves right. The Barbados Labour Party read them wrong and the ALP also read them wrong.
@ Carson C. Cadogan | September 8, 2013 at 12:47 PM |
“If it is one thing you must do in politics is to read the tea leaves right. The Barbados Labour Party read them wrong and the ALP also read them wrong.”
So Mr. Futurist Cadogan, the self-appointed soothsayer like the miller, who was reading the local political tea leaves between 1994 and 2007? You, Cockly Lockly?
One in Four is not bad at all, would you say Arson ma boy.
‘Kevin Rudd push Julia Gillard out of the way because he thought he was the best person to be at the helm of the ALP going into the elections. He got his backside whipped. The electorate had any ideas about him and his party’
it was Julia Gillard who backstabbed the elected Prime Minister who was her elected party leader first just like Mr Thompson backstabbed Mr Mascoll because he recognised the electorate was getting restless with Mr Arthur’s arrogance and there was a chance of the DLP winning the elections.
BALANCE
As usual you have it wrong. Mascol problems started because of his gross disrespect of Brandford taitt.
Carson. I forgot to applaud you on your promoting the constituency council last Friday. Carson, alias Arthur of Brass Tacks fame, You don’t care about a fella, once you are promoting the job that pays your bill.
‘As usual you have it wrong. Mascol problems started because of his gross disrespect of Brandford taitt.’
perhaps I do have it wrong because I am not an privy to the inner shenanigans of either party but what is clear to those with no axe to grind from the published reports on the sordid matter is that Mr Mascoll’s removal as leader of the DLP was as a result of a surreptitious plot by Mr Thompson et al.
Again ignorance, plot or not Thompson’s collegues had to vote for HIM.
balance
‘ Mr Mascoll’s removal as leader of the DLP was as a result of a surreptitious plot by Mr Thompson et al.’
Wrong again, but I will leave it there as you BLP like to wallow in lies..
“Again ignorance, plot or not Thompson’s collegues had to vote for HIM.”
So did Mr Arthur’s colleagues but that does not negate the view that Ms Motley’s ouster was as a result of a plot or not.
“Wrong again, but I will leave it there as you BLP like to wallow in lies.”
you would be more familiar with wallowing in lies than I am for it was upon lies that Mr Macoll’s character was brought into disrepute before and after his ouster to accommodate the return of the anointed.
@balance
Your view is narrow. The Whitehall system we practice allows for this adversarial practice. it is the nature of our system. What plot what! It is how political parties operate in this system.
http://youtu.be/qrHVX1lrroY
WHAT IS IT REALLY ALL ABOUT???????? Pride and industry.IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS.
ImageI born in barbados in the 1960. there was no tourism ! there was sugar cane ,rum,we had garment factories,we produced products to export.we used the eastern Caribbean currency.
THEN BAM——–tourism up the yin-yang people were friendly .when you passed some one on the street you said hello.
and they also say hello. did not matter what color you were.then barbados got its independence.IN-CASE you all did not realize it we got it because the English could no longer make money off of us and Barbadians were going to England and going on welfare.no more breeding of the slaves.no more raping and pillaging the slaves black and white.
so they left.they left us to handle our own island which much slave blood had built.
then came the Canadians and Americans with their deals and telling us what we need and such like.
the low morals of them came with them.
they were godless.worthless.
they were as some would say low class trash looking to make money off us bajans.
they gave us money,, we took the bribes.
now what do we have??????????????????????
a tiny island ,full of north American taught ways and television. the idiot box my father called it.
it is what i call it now.
what did we give up to get to where we are now???????????????
dignity,morals,our slow island life style,stress free, GOD HIMSELF.WE GAVE UP FOR THESE DEVILS.
for what ???????????????
high taxes,traffic,sexual transmitted diseases,our pride,our self worth,we gave up what being a bajan was.………….!!!!!!!!!
A bajan was not being like a north american or European but being a bajan.!!!!!!!!
u see greed, lust,pride,materialism=============,keeping up with the north american and English disgusting life styles.
that is what the foreigners brought for us. are you happy now ????????????
looking forward to that mind numbing television program ??????????
gay marriage?
gay pride?
stinking displays of devilish lust you call wuck up?
who taught you this?
not from where i came in Ireland,or from where you came in Africa.
we had to have something to sell the tourist………….so we ended up copying Hawaiian hula perhaps but it got more vulgar as you all got more vulgar with the foreigners egging you on.with words like if it feels good do it.! why not who cares if the lord said not to do it .
if it feels good do it influence.
what is a bajan now??????????
a ass kisser of tourist,????
do you see in as short as i can make it what has happened to barbados????????????
do you care with that cancer causing i phone to your ear?
do you like the traffic?
do you like the seat belts?
strapping you in?
DO YOU THINK YOU WILL EVER BE FREE?????????????????????????
THING IS WHERE THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MORE BABIES GOING TO GO??????????????????????????
ANSWER THAT ! or ask your prime minister .where are the jobs for the children to soon graduate?
the seven deadly sins.left to your interpretation.
A proud look
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood
A heart that devises wicked plots
Feet that are swift to run into mischief
A deceitful witness that uttereth lies
Him that soweth discord among brethren